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Captain Sim 767-300 Base Model

Captain Sim 767-300 Base Model

By William Werrlein (13 January 2010)

With the very successful Level D
767 many of us wondered why Captain Sim was working on their
version of the Boeing 767 after putting it on a long hold a few
years ago. Well I can say after seeing the success of the 767
throughout the FS community Captain Sim had to introduce their own
767 with the Captain Sim touch on detail. While both Level D and
Captain Sim have their perks and downfalls. I own both and can say
I love both of them. With that in mind I present the Captain Sim
767 for FSX.

** Please keep an eye out for two stars as they are important
notes**

A Short History On The Boeing 767

The Boeing 767 program was launched in July of 1978. United was
the launch customer with 30 Boeing 767-200's. The first 767 rolled
out of the hangar August 4, 1981 and the first flight being
September 26, 1981. Boeing continued working on the 767 coming up
with the 767-300 in September of 1983. The first customer to
receive the Boeing 767-300 was Japan Airlines. Boeing continued to
work on the 767 trying to beat its rival Airbus. The 767 was
Boeing's design to replace the A300 and A310.

First Impression

Seeing those screen shots on the Pilot Shop who
can resist? What an immensely detailed airplane with a full length
cabin! My first impression was and still is the same. However with
great detail comes great sacrifice. The 767 in my opinion puts the
heaviest load on FPS of any of my Captain Sim planes. But there are
ways to overcome this issue if you have a NVIDIA graphics card.
There are multiple ways to help improve performance; many are
explained on YouTube.

The downloadable version of the 767-300 Base Pack is only 69 MB
which is a much smaller size than expected considering the detail
and features. The 767-300 Base Pack comes with 14 very detailed
liveries with many more available to download. The liveries
included are Aeroflot (GE), KLM (GE), Air Canada (GE), Air Holland
(GE), Varig (GE), Alitalia (GE), Japan Airlines (GE), Qantas (GE),
Australian Airlines (GE), Air France (PW), Aerosvit (PW), Lufthansa
(PW), Condor (PW), British Airways (RR). As most add-ons do all
liveries have a thumbnail with a type of engine next to the name.
One feature I did not like was the fact that there is no
description of the 767, the only thing in the description box is
the version you are running and the Captain Sim logo. At the bottom
of the description box it says "see manual" so I think that is what
we should do next.

Manual

Unfortunately the 767 installer does not include the manual. You
must go to the Captain Sim web site and download the manuals for
the 767 under the support tab. There are five sections and each has
its own manual which seemed a bit sloppy. I'd rather have one
manual with different sections devoted to all of the subjects the
manuals cover. On a positive note each manual is extremely,
extremely detailed. If it were not for the red "DO NOT USE FOR
FLIGHT" quote at the top of each page I would honestly think that
they were from the real 767!

Exterior

Captain Sim is well known for their authentic feel in the level
of detail that they apply to all of their aircraft. The level of
detail on the exterior is immaculate and despite the many
complaints about the low FPS (frames per second) you get with this
aircraft the level of detail on the exterior you see a very small
drop in this aircraft on the exterior than you would on a default
plane. Everything is animated on the exterior from the main
entrance down the rear cooling flap. Captain Sim has devoted a lot
of attention to both the exterior and interior adding animated door
handles which can be seen on the interior and exterior, even the
emergency exits are animated.

With all of the exterior goodies you get with this aircraft you
can simulate all phases of flight including maintenance and
securing the plane for parking. The texturing on this aircraft is
remarkable and frame rate friendly. All liveries including the
liveries available on the Captain Sim site (some McPhat repaints)
are extremly detailed with dirt touchups, metal paneling, self
shadowing, etc. The gear in my opinion is also very detailed as it
even features a noticeable spring used to retract the main
gear.

There is an issue with the flaperons which do not droop when
lowering the flaps while in the real 767 they do (although Captain
Sim has confirmed that it has been forwarded to their development
team). On a side note the Captain Sim features an ACE which allows
you to add/remove repaints, modify the virtual cockpit/cabin (by
removing the cabin) and removing the window reflection which in
addition to the cabin can be a real frame rate saver. I will
include a little addition on the ACE at the end of the review. This
gives you the option to include or remove winglets which I thought
was pretty cool. This also repositions the strobe lights to the top
of the winglets. If you've ever taken the time to look at the
flight deck windows from the exterior you will notice a
multi-colored swirl on each window. This is a film on the inside of
the windows giving it strength and making it virtually shatterproof
(which can be a good thing when you look at this 767).

A feature that I think would go great with this add-on would be
emergency exit slides much like the ones on their 727.
Unfortunately these are not included in the package and no word on
Captain Sim ever including it in a package. I would have also liked
to see air stairs. With the animation panel available (shift+3) I
think Captain Sim could have possibly added an air stair animation.
Overall Captain Sim has gone the extra mile and included this
minute but noticeable detail. While some developers believe in
sacrificing one aspect of an add-on aircraft for another Captain
Sim has decided to sacrifice nothing and truly build the best of
the best. I approve of the exterior model and applaud Captain Sim's
quality effort into improving add-on aircraft.

Another side note: From what I notice Captain Sim's planes are
always getting bigger and better. The C-130 was a hit followed by the
757, followed by the 727, and finally the 767. Throughout
the progression of Captain Sims product they always add a lot more
in all aspects of detail and realism.

Interior

This part of the aircraft puts the heaviest load on your frame
rates. The interior, although very detailed, does have some
noticeable problems which I'll start off with first. First off the
interior VC, cockpit and cabin are misaligned with the main
fuselage. In other words when the jetway docks with your aircraft
if you are standing at the main door you will see the jetway attach
to the space in between the flight deck and the main door (from the
cabin) however on the exterior you will see the jet way attached to
the corresponding door correctly. This also misaligns the nav and
strobe lights which dampens the enjoyment of wing views from the
cabin.

Now enough bad, let's cover the good. The cabin is extremely
detailed, with the maximum animations allowed by FSX. As with the
757 all of the same features exist in the animation sense. Cockpit
windows, doors, rudder pedals, etc. The cabin however features some
new animation compared to the 757. One feature I liked about the
767 cabin was that the window shades are dragged down rather than
clicked. So you can essentially just crack the window shade as
opposed to the 757 where you either had it opened or closed. The
economy seats (excluding first class) are animated; you can
actually recline the seats for those long hauls like YSSY to KLAX
(Kingsford Smith, Sydney, Australia to Los Angeles, California,
United States Of America). Not all of the seats and shades are
animated. You also have animated meal trays, arm rests, door
handles, etc. As you can see in the screen
shot the interior door handle when open says "StEnd clear", a
misspelling error which can easily be fixed. Night lighting in the
cabin is a bit bright but spectacular as is the lighting in the
cockpit. Be sure to explore the entire plane as again it has a full
length cabin! This is a great feature as no aircraft of its size
features the entire cabin.

Here is a complete list of animations taken from the Captain Sim
web site:

FLIGHT DECK:

Sun Shield (4) L-R

Nose Wheel Steering Control Handle

Windshield Handle (2) L-R

Pilot's Window (2) L-R

Pilot's Window mechanism (2) L-R

Control Wheel Clip (2) L-R

Pilot's Seat (fwd-bwd, up-down) (2) L-R

Pilot's Seat Head Rest (2) L-R

Pilot's Seat Arm Rest (4) L-R

Auxiliary Panel Table

Transparent Spare Bulbs Cover

Pilot's coat

Books (3)

Wipers (2)

Door

Control Wheel and Column (2)

Control Wheel AP Switch (2)

Control Wheel Trim Switches (4)

Rudder Pedals (4)

Rudder Trim

Aileron Trim (2)

Rudder Pedals Adjustment Crank (2) L-R

Landing Gear Lever

Flaps Control Lever

Stab Trim Control Lever (2)

Engine Control Lever (2) L-R

Engine Reverser Control Lever (2) L-R

Parking Brakes Control Lever

Engine Fuel Cutoff Handle (2) L-R

Engine Fire Shutoff Handle (3) L-R

Switches (36)

Guarded Switches (6)

Buttons (23)

Selectors (56)

Knobs (73)

LAVATORY AND GALLEYS:

Passenger/Service Door (6)

Door Handles (6)

Emergency Exits (2) L-R

Lavatory Door (5)

PASSENGER CABIN:

Blinds (68)

Arm Rests (24)

Passenger Seat (18)

Seat Tables (18)

Overhead Compartments

The VC is a great place to fly the aircraft although you will
notice a very heavy drop in FPS. However there are ways to
counteract this.

FOR NVIADIA CARD USERS:

Go to your control panel->Additional options->NVIDIA
control panel->go to manage 3d settings->Under 3D app visual
simulation scroll down to the bottom and look for Vertical
sync->move to the right and hit "Force off" This improved
performance in the cabin vastly for me. There still was a bit of
lag but nothing as compared to before.

DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK

The interior has once again carried the legacy of detail that
Captain Sim incorporates into all of their software. With that I
will give you a good visual of what you can expect from the
interior.

Systems

The best system simulated is the FMC or FMS. This in my opinion
is just better than that of the Level D 767. The 767 does feature a
TCAS and weather radar system as well. TCAS (Traffic Collision
Avoidance System) was quite easy to use and did prevent a few
collisions during testing. The TCAS system checks out fine. The
weather radar system set to the default 767 weather radar was
great. This was not the add-on radar but the radar that comes with
the 767 base. It depicted true weather when flying through
thunderstorms or large banks of clouds. The radar did not take a
bit of time to catch up and depict a true weather reading on the
nav display. Every few seconds it rescans itself.

Something that is often not modeled in Flight Simulator is the
RAT or Ram Air Turbine. This is a pinwheel that in essence
generates just enough electricity for the essential flight
controls, radios, and instrument. I tested the RAT and found that I
could in fact keep my instruments on but lost my gyro for the
artificial horizon. Not good when flying in MVFR, or IFR. With an
electrical failure I tried using the radio with the RAT deployed
and activated but still no radio. The RAT is more for looks than it
is for functionality but it does add a bit of realism to the
sim.

The autopilot was easy to use although it did have one very rare
but fatal flaw. When on LNAV following my cross country route
KLGA->KLAS about 2 hours and 43 minutes into the flight the 767
lost tracks and started circling. I deleted every waypoint and
completely erased all data in the FMS. After reprogramming it
midflight time and time again I could not get it to follow the
pre-programmed course. Not even when using the heading hold.
Although this was very rare it's something to keep in mind.

Be sure to align the IRS before moving the aircraft. If you try
to simply start the sim and go and try to align the IRS in flight
or mid roll you will never get the NAV display back unless your
enter you latitude and longitude into the Pos page of the FMC and
you switch the IRS from NAV to ATT which can be good if you
accidentally move one of the three IRS switches to either Align or
Off. The fuel system, well I found this to be a bit unrealistic
because you can start both the engines and the APU without ground
power without activating the fuel pumps.

Other than a few features such as the IRS and FMC this plane can
be used by a beginner. However, anyone wishing to fly this aircraft
without knowing how to use the FMC is going to want to give the
manual a look over. There is no GPS in this plane although you can
upload a route pre-programmed in the FS flight planner into the GPS
but other vital information such as weights, winds, SID/STARS must
be programmed by hand.

Captain Sim is only on version 1.4 of the 767. This means that
there are more updates to come each one improving the aircraft
drastically so do not allow the current issues to influence your
decision to add the Captain Sim 767 to your hangar.

Flight Characteristics

I found the 767 to have a light feel to it. In fact you will
notice this on climb out you can easily over turn or over correct
this aircraft. But again Captain Sim does have a 767 pilot in their
staff so with time and patience for updates I am sure the dynamics
will be updated. The rocking issue reported by both 757/767 users
is again rare in the 767 and should be disregarded as it has only
affected my flight once out of my entire review period. Stalling
the airplane had an odd effect on the 767 with the flaps down. At
full thrust and T/O power with full flaps on climb out the airplane
yawed all the way to the right then back after I corrected it with
rudder. It immediately recovered from the stall and proceeded at
full flaps until I could recover with T/O flap's.

Compared the Level D 767 the flight dynamics feel the same
really. Other than that the plane was built more towards the
systems and the detail. I am not a real 767 pilot so I can't really
speak on behalf of the flight dynamics but I'm just saying that
they are a little light. I recommend getting the Saitek Pro Flight System as using this with the
767 makes the airplane feel much more realistic especially when
using two throttle quadrants instead of one.

Why do I see so many different version of this plane on the
Captain Sim product line? Well the method Captain Sim implies is a
block system. What they do is they release each model separately
hence the 767-300 Base Pack, the Freighter Pack, etc. However once
all work is done on the 767 Captain Sim often releases a Pro Pack
which includes all packs and models. This will take time as the 767
is Captain Sim's newest creation.

Sound

My favorite part of the sound is engine start up. You can really
hear all of the components of the turbofan jet engine. The power up
from the interior is a bit weak and really doesn't sound like the
true thing but the exterior is great. The Captain Sim 767 comes
with F/A and captain sounds, i.e., welcome aboard, etc. However
they seem to be available at random. In other words sometimes it
works but more often than not if doesn't work. You can hear the APU
as well but that goes with the cabin announcements. For those of
you who have owned the Legendary 727 for FS2004 you know what the
announcements sound like they are the exact same sounds except
there is no speech when they say welcome onboard this Boeing 7-7
Captain Sim simply cut the two out. I am sure with future updates
Captain Sim will add real announcements. Another unique feature is
that each engine has its own unique sound. The RR engine does not
sound like the P&W engines for instance.

The sounds is great, really can't complain about that part.

Final Word

A lot of people are posting bad comments about the 767 due to
the low frame rates they get with the plane. I urge people to read
the system requirements which will be posted below. This is a very,
very, very detailed plane and will require a lot of resources.
Especially those with FSX. There are a few tips and trick one
mentioned above for NVIDIA users. This will remedy the problem for
those that have lag. I still did get a bit of lagging especially in
the VC but with that fix and a few others I did get a noticeable
increase in performance. I recommend this aircraft to anyone who is
not sure whether to buy this aircraft or not due to the current
bugs. These bugs will be fixed and Captain Sim always welcomes
feedback on bugs which they forward to their design team and work
the issue out. Anyone who likes to fly from all perspectives
including the full length of the passenger cabin. This plane will
give you a true feel of what it's like to be on the 767. I enjoyed
reviewing it and look forward to a whole new 767 when Captain Sim
releases new updates. This aircraft is great for screen shots and
moviemakers!

About Me

I am currently 18 years old. I am a C/AM1c in the Civil Air
Patrol. I am nearing the end of my PPL training and going all the
way through ATP. I applied to Embry-Riddle University/Air Force
Academy and if accepted will continue with my aeronautics and
engineering degree. I also hope to visit the moon. I do plan to
apply for the astronaut candidacy program after I graduate and
start my aerospace career.

System Requirements

These are minimum system requirements. It is highly recommended
you have much more than the minimum requirements to have an error
free product.